I’m not clinical, but I worked in medical IT off and on.

The shit I would hear from clinical staff.

Had a senior surgeon call me because his application was frozen. Cool, cool, lets get that going - wait - you’re what - palpating a child’s heart to keep it beating in rhythm? There are back ups upon back ups for anything IT related in that scenario. Don’t call your overnight helpdesk with that shit, have your nurse write it down on paper. Fuck.

Most traumatic IT call I’ve ever had. Didn’t even care to solve his IT issue, just focused on patient care. My 20 something ass with a few years behind the desk told him to focus on the patient’s LIFE first and foremost, we can talk later.

Always great for an interview question though - how do you respond under stress? Well, lol…

I was tier one help desk, overnight, in a children’s hospital.

I had a doctor call me, who expressly made it clear he didn’t want a run around, while manually palpating a child’s heart to keep it in rhythm and thus, the child alive.

I told him there are back ups upon back ups that can be implemented, and I am happy to talk about his computer problem when the patient is SAFE. Not a little, “we got this,” safe, but SAFE.

Tier one help desk, overnight, no support, and I had to tell a person who turned out to be a board member that he could go fuck himself on his computer problem until the child patient was safe.

My first job was customer service, and I’ve been in IT for a dozen years. Its still customer service. You just have to realize who the customer is - in the case of a children’s hospital, it is always the child.

I remember a friend’s first child’s birthday.

Me and the mom killed a pony keg because no one else had the balls too.

I’m about that friend’s age now… man, she went hard. Gonna miss her. I couldn’t keep up now.

Edit: She’s alive and well, married with a gaggle of kids, we grew apart. Just miss those late summer nights where the only place we had to be was a shit retail job, and we could get stoned for that.

I don’t disagree. My last job was using winget to update some things. I raised the concept of trusting otherwise unknown updates, but I was pushed aside for the quick utility.

I’m only a student of cybersecurity, but I harshly judge my former “security expert” on far more than that.

Like fuck, the help desk has to install every patch, to every machine, through a spreadsheet?

No, deploy that shit from a server. Fuck.

In a way, I’m glad I left. In another way, I would really like a pay check again… and I moved to a well, tech illiterate state. Fuck me.

I picked up Veilguard because I enjoyed Origins and Inquisition. The second game… at this point, I don’t think I took it right and its my problem and I need to give it another chance.

I’m still very early into the game, but the only “woke” thing I’ve seen so far is variable gender identity during character creation.

You want to play a “woman” who looks masculine, with atypical male traits, even a penis, and a deep voice? You know what, I’m glad the option is open to people. It doesn’t vibe with me personally, but I’m glad that people I care about can make a character that is “them,” because who hasn’t made themselves in an RPG at some point in their life, best they were able.

Again, I’m early to it, but that is all of the “woke” shit I’ve seen.

For the record, I have friends and family in the LGTBQ+(whatever, doesn’t matter) that I support.

I don’t want hate in my heart, and I’ve worked very hard to overcome some biases that came from my more “southern” upbringing. Hell, one of those biased views from the past is now openly trans, and I was the only family member they talked to because they couldn’t talk to anyone else.

I’m imperfect, as all humans are, but it isn’t hard to fucking TRY, just a little, to realize that someone else’s self image and happiness doesn’t affect mine other than what pronouns I use to refer to them. Fuck, its not hard. Just don’t be a dick.

Yeah, TNO is absolutely an individual character you happen to be in the shoes of.

Without spoiling anything, the game IS TNO’s story.

If that doesn’t interest you, best of luck in your refund request.

That being said, I’ve only gotten around to getting one tattoo in my life - The rune of torment.

I use proton pass currently.

My life is changing in less than two weeks.

I have an enterprise grade server that I can’t run for a variety of home reasons.

When me and the wife… for lack of a better term, escape, our situation, I’ll be able to self host. I know its gonna be a struggle, I have things to learn, and that is why I’m so excited.

Oh fuck me, I’m still studying to red team basic computing.

I take it you’ve never had to log into a printer with an AD account before?

Yeah, I went out to 32 characters once. Until I needed to work on a printer.

Black Isle Studios.

Hands down, no contest.

If you’re looking for a name, Chris Avallone. Planescape: Torment and fucking New Vegas.

I only have one tattoo, and it is the Rune of Torment. That piece of art touched me.

As a Texan, in a purple area, this doesn’t surprise me from Oklahoma.

I had the displeasure of driving through OK to get to my late father in law’s hospital bed before he passed.

I ended up blowing through a toll entry because they didn’t accept paper money or cards. Just coins. I went to the little building to try to pay my way, and it appeared to be abandoned.

Mother fuckers, I can buy a legal variant of weed with my fucking watch. Coins? Join this century please.

My expectations of Bethesda, since Oblivion, has been as a mod platform.

Gimme a new engine with updated graphics and great mod support and let the community does what it does best.

Front Right: Keys, wireless earbuds, active nicotine packet container.

Front Left: Eckster Wallet, spare nicotine packet container, phone.

Back Right and Left: Utility Spots, used as needed.

Right Pocket Watch Pocket: CRKT CEO knife, if off the clock, THCa pen (legal in my area)

I don’t find myself “engaged,” I find myself wanting to spend money for something that will bore me the next week.

There is a reason I’ve mostly played single player games for the past decade.

I was tired of the “seasons” and micro transactions when I just wanted a story. If the story was good, I’d be ok with purchasing an expansion upon it. I remember my first expansion pack, Warcraft 2, played over a phone line. It felt worth it.

For more modern games, The Witcher 3 DLC felt like proper expansion packs. I have no bad feelings about those.

But just adding a few cosmetic items? Fuck off.

I’ve lived in Texas as long as I can remember, but I was born in California.

Spanish finds it’s way into my everyday speech constantly.

My family is white as fuck, but my mother became fluent in college.

I took Spanish in high school for my foreign language credits.

While I’m not fluent, I’ve worked closely with people who primarily speak Spanish with a little broken English.

The little bit of Spanish I recall, and the little bit of English they know, allowed us to work together.

Is that irritating?

The last group I was with ran mostly DND 5e. However, our DM needed a break, and another player took up the reigns for a Star Wars Table Top.

It was not serious. Homebrew and the rule of cool made it a blast - Think Guardians of the Galaxy comedy in a Star Wars wrapper.

The DM for that set goal posts. Like around a certain level, force sensitive classes would get their first light saber.

My character was a bounty hunter who finally got his Mandalorian armor where I could customize “components” like a hand mounted flame thrower, or a shoulder cannon, or what the fuck ever. We spent more time dissecting statistics to get it balanced than anything thematic.

Totally home brewed in that system.

I think that was my best table top experience, and I’m an old school DND nerd. I feel like some days I can barely do my job, but I can quote how THAC0 works on a whim.

I don’t understand statistics unless dice are involved, and no that does not extend to gambling dice games. Utterly useless, but I can go into an ADHD hyper focus on anything that is not actually beneficial to my life in a tangible way, lol.

I was in band, and marching band was mandatory.

I did not try out, as I did not want to participate in that part of the band experience.

So I was part of the “front ensemble” which is shit you can’t march with. Timpani drums, etc.

We had an L frame rack with wheels that had all sorts of crap on it, half of it made in some garage before I joined.

We called it the ghetto rack.

I had a solo on what were essentially tanks that had the bottom cut off and an attachment point welded on top hung by rope.

So yeah, if you can hit it and make a sound, it becomes a percussion instrument.

Wait and Bleed in my ass.

We live in troubled times, the planet is overheating at a rate that it might affect my life more than being more uncomfortable in the summer. And that’s Texas summers at that.

There is an island of plastic refuse in the ocean bigger than some countries.

I saw the home computer come to the living room and the internet be birthed.

If you were to ask if I was jaded as a kid, already? Yeah. Around 7 years old.

It isn’t getting better. Corporations claw for more and more at the expense of the people and the planet.

I hope the younger generations can lead the charge of change, but for me… I don’t have the time or energy to play games most days, let alone change the planet.

And for those who will say, “Aren’t you just part of the problem then?” Sadly yes, I am. I try to make changes when I can, but I fear changing the small environment of my home will not be enough.

I like that you brought this up.

Dogs are omnivores with sensitive stomachs. Kinda like me, and a host of other people on this planet.

Cats are obligate carnivores. They also have sensitive stomachs. This is how I prefer to eat, but I do in fact needs to eat more fruits and veggies.